A Secret
by Ukaisha
Summary: Izumi receives a corny love note from a secret admirer, and decides to investigate the most likely culprits. One-shot, complete. DigiFro. ConCrit welcome.


Disclaimer: The author takes no stake or claim on any characters mentioned.

A/N: I've never done a story like this before, and admittedly I'm not sure I'm all that happy with how it turned out. It took a long time for me to finish, though the idea had been floating around in my head for a little while. I'm just not that happy with how it was written, that's all. Idea is nice, the actual written part is lame.

Nonetheless, since this can kind of be considered my first "officially not yaoi" piece in a few years now, I think it's okay. Acceptable, anyway. I'm glad I successfully managed to break away from never-ending slash and did something different. (although, arguably I managed to slip in something boy love related. Hate myself for that, but I'm too lazy to rewrite it. It's not that invasive if it bothers you)  
Whether you're a usual reader or someone new popping in, I hope you enjoy.  
Be sure to leave a comment/critique, especially if you want to explain your opinion/theory about the ending. I'm very interested to hear from people, especially if you have a theory on how it ended.

* * *

Izumi couldn't figure out what the game was, or who was toying with her, or even what their reason for messing with her was in the first place. It was beyond frustrating to have to look down and read the stupid note over and over again, and to have simply no lead to go on, no clue to follow. Why even give her the note at all if he didn't leave some way for her to figure out who it was from?  
She was more annoyed than flattered, scowling sourly instead of being all giggly like anyone else would be after retrieving the following note from her locker:

_Izumi,  
__I don't want you to know who I am yet, even though you know me very well. I can't say this to your face yet, but I need to tell you something really important. I can't stand hiding the truth, but I need to confess this to you. I really like you, maybe even love you. I hope that one day if I can get up the nerve to tell you, you'll give me a chance to show you that I love you.  
__Love,  
__Anonymous. _

She'd found it in her locker not long after fourth period, and it had bothered her all day after. Unlike most girls that are easily swooned by a love note, she was not distressed over who'd sent it, but more distressed that she'd received it in the first place. Having nonsense relationships and secret admirers running around, stalking her, and leaving suspicious notes in her locker did not exactly please her, and there was no question that it was meant for her; it had her name on it. It was all the more frustrating to know that it was someone she supposedly hung out with frequently, and yet she couldn't think of a single boy that for one, liked her enough to send her a note like this, or for another, didn't have the balls to say it to her face.  
The frustration had built up so much that she'd been unable to do any work this period, and she was relieved to hear the bell finally ring, signaling the end of the school day. She crumpled up the note again and stuffed it in her book bag, determined not to lose it but equally as determined to show anyone who spied on her that she did not treat the note with high regard. She was not doting over it; it meant little to nothing to her and she was completely indifferent to its contents.  
A few minutes later she was walking home by herself, staring at the note again and pondering. Like it or not, she was totally focused on the note, (strictly because of annoyance, you see! She just wanted the truth on who sent it; she didn't care about the romance part one bit!) and could not get it out of her head. And whether Anonymous liked it or not, she was going to figure out who he was, and she was going to lay the smack down on him.

It was typed, which was smart, because she could immediately recognize any of her close friends' handwriting.  
The spelling and grammar was unusually correct, (though the syntax made it bothersome to read) but that didn't necessarily mean anything. Word document programs were getting very anal these days, and assuming he wrote the note in the same program he probably wrote essays and other school papers on, it probably automatically corrected everything as he went. She took advantage of such a program herself. Besides, he might be totally different when writing a serious letter as opposed to writing casually.  
The guy was pretty straightforward and definitely no poet, but that didn't mean anything either. None of the guys she knew were delving very deep into the world of distinguished writing, and besides, writing more than the basics would've probably given them away. Even if the spelling and grammar told her nothing, writing style eventually would have.  
It was on a plain white sheet of paper, not decorated with cheesy hearts or anything, which either meant the guy was plain, had no sense of romanticism, or knew her well enough to know that she would be entirely embarrassed pulling such a paper out of her locker. Or maybe he just drew this all up last minute and didn't have time to decorate it.

In the end, Izumi narrowed it down to the main boys that she knew, the original five in "The Group," with the six of them that made up the chosen children. They weren't as close as they'd been in those days, as a few years will pull most anyone apart, but they all saw each other on a regular basis, and they were the boys she definitely spent the most time with. There weren't many other boys in her life, and none that would send her a letter like this. Plus the letter said he knew her very well, and the only boys that knew her well enough to say that with confidence were the five other Chosen.

Eventually she ruled out Tomoki sheerly based on the fact that he did not even attend high school yet; he would've found it very challenging to sneak into the school, figure out which locker was hers, sneak the paper in, and then escape again. It was almost impossible. Given the narrow window between 2nd and 4th period? It _was_ impossible.  
She couldn't rule out the other four as easily; all of them attended the same high school and all of them had seen where her locker was at one time or another. All of them had gone to school today, but she couldn't remember seeing any of them actually at her locker.  
She hated to admit it, but the chance of being the secret admirer was equally possible between all four boys. She could not truthfully eliminate the possibility of any of them; when a potential reason popped up, there was always some additional evidence to disprove it. Any one of her boys could be the culprit behind this embarrassing note.  
This whole situation was terribly awkward; she'd been hoping to avoid having any kind of relationship with any of her close male friends, for obvious reasons. Just one guy fallen in love with her could destroy the whole group and ruin their friendship. She'd already considered what it would be like to date each of the four; she'd even wanted to date one or two of them at one point. But she knew it was a disaster waiting to happen with any one of them, and she'd firmly asserted her boundaries to avoid having things like THIS happen.

Sometimes it was hard being the only girl.

Izumi eventually reached home and took out her cell phone, turning it on and checking it for any messages. When she found none, she contemplated sending a mass text to the boys, a subtle yet encouraging one that would test their reactions all at once.  
But she didn't want to have anyone uninvolved to suddenly think she liked them for some reason, and that was enough to trash the idea.  
Worse, what if none of them responded and the note was a joke, or not even from any of the boys?  
Worse yet, what if all four of them responded positively and it turned out that _all_ of them liked her, and she was caught up in the middle of some absurd love polygon?  
She really did not like being the only girl right now.

It took her until about 4 o'clock in the afternoon for her to make up her mind. She was going hunting for the boy who sent her the note, and she would find him by the end of the night. She had a few hours to go, so she would spend that time diligently investigating until she found her man.  
She wasn't sure what she would do when she found him. "Give him a thorough thrashing" was high on her list of priorities, but she figured she'd take a "let him down gently" approach strictly because it was her boys we were talking about. Given any other boy who'd inserted himself into this circumstance, she would not have decided to be as lenient.  
It wasn't that she wanted to be a bitch and spite whoever had this crush on her; she just did not want to have anything started in "The Group," and as a whole she wasn't interested in dealing with a troublesome significant other, especially one who couldn't even look her in the face and tell her how he felt. She was only fifteen, and she had more important things to worry about right now than a shy potential boyfriend.  
If nothing else, she just didn't want to find any more love notes in her locker, and she didn't want to have to walk around school and feel like someone was stalking her. She needed to reassert her boundaries, so needed to find the culprit and set him straight before anything got out of hand. She just didn't feel that way for any one of the boys in "The Group," not anymore at least, and _she_ at least had the nerve to say that to _his_ face.  
Thus, Izumi set off on her quest to find the secret admirer, whoever he was. And so the story really begins.

* * *

Izumi had only four suspects after logically eliminating Tomoki. After she took some consideration into it, she decided the order of boys most likely to have sent her the note would be Junpei, Kouji, Takuya, and Kouichi.

Junpei was at the top for an obvious reason; back in the Digital World, he'd made it clear he'd had a crush on her. A _major_ crush, and he wasn't too secret about it. After failing to win her heart over and over again he'd eventually given up on it about two years ago, but for all she knew he was just keeping his feelings more to himself to avoid embarrassment. The only problem was that Anonymous made it clear he didn't want Izumi to know who he was, but would Junpei have sent the letter knowing he'd probably be a top suspect?  
Kouji she had trouble placing because she was never under the impression that he liked her, but let him take second strictly because he seemed to be the type to send a letter and gauge her interest rather than put himself at risk for rejection by saying anything to her face. He was cool and he was scheming; not to mention she knew for certain that Kouji knew where her locker was, while the remaining two she wasn't totally sure. Beside that, the letter sounded like something he might've written.  
Takuya placed third for the exact same reasons Kouji placed second, except in reverse; he seemed least likely to send a letter and would rather just address the matter himself, to her face. He wasn't one to beat around the bush when it came to matters like that, especially not to her. He'd be awkward, but honest. He was also placed third after she spent some more time scrutinizing the letter, and decided that it ultimately didn't sound like he'd written it.  
Kouichi was behind Takuya strictly because as long as she'd known the guy, he'd never expressed any interest in her whatsoever, while there had been a few awkward moments between the other three. In fact, he seemed the most stand-offish to her, wholly disinterested in the fact that she was a single girl in a group of friends that mostly contained boys. It was almost suspicious that he'd expressed such little interest in the only girl in the group, and due to this she'd decided that either he was secretly madly in love with her, or gay.

_Hey Junpei, what are you up to?  
_She didn't often text Junpei, so she hoped that he wouldn't find it too strange. But she was already on her way to his home, and she just wanted to check that he was available for talking to.  
It took him several minutes to get back to her; Junpei never did jump on the fad train when texting came about, so he was rather slow about it.  
_Hi. Just hanging out. Wats up with u?  
_So far so good. She just had to be subtle about it is all.  
_Im in ur neighborhood and was gonna stop by to say hi. Is that ok?  
_Eventually, when she was only a block away from his house, he replied:  
_Lol. u just said hi to me just now. But sure, come on over.  
_She hung around outside for a few minutes, reading the short letter and memorizing it by heart, trying to imagine Junpei saying the words. Admittedly, they didn't especially sound like something he would say, but people did write differently than they spoke…  
Well, it wouldn't hurt anything. The only question now was whether she should confront with the letter immediately or drop a few hints until he revealed the truth.

Izumi loudly knocked on the door, dedicated to figuring out once and for all if Junpei was the one involved with this letter. As soon as he opened the door, already smiling, she convinced herself that Junpei was the culprit, and she decided on the spot that she would wriggle it out of him one way or another.  
"Hi Junpei," she said in a voice she hoped he wouldn't think was _too_ cheerful. It certainly sounded fake to her; guess she needed to tone it down. He seemed none the wiser.  
"Hey Izumi-chan. Did you have time to come in?" He wasn't anxious seeing her, but he wasn't overly happy to see her either. He was pretty neutral about it. This she wasn't sure what to do about.  
"Oh, sure. I don't have to be anywhere for like twenty minutes." Truthfully she didn't have to be anywhere at any time, but she didn't want him to wonder why she'd been "in the neighborhood" if it was for no reason at all.  
"Cool. Just be quiet though, my mom's sleeping."

He led her to his room, where she immediately took up residence at his computer again and resumed typing. "Excuse me for a minute; you caught me in the middle of sending an e-mail."  
"Sure, no problem."  
This was kind of a suspicious move, and she couldn't decide what he meant by it. Either he could be so embarrassed that she was now in the room that he needed to do something else to prevent himself from freaking out, or he was truly uninterested in wooing her anymore and didn't really mind if she thought he was rude by temporarily ignoring her. Either way, he took his time completing the e-mail, and while she waited, she glanced all about his room, hoping to find some secret tell-tale sign of obsession nestled away somewhere, which she didn't.

Junpei loudly hit the "Enter" key, and then turned around to face her. "So whatcha up to?" He was grinning, but not blushing or anything like that. He was certainly happy to see her, but she couldn't decide if this sort of happy was TOO happy or not.  
"Nothing much. I'm running a few errands for my mother. The woman _still_ hasn't picked up Japanese efficiently enough to run around the city, if you can believe it."  
"Really? After living in Japan for, what, how long now?"  
"Four years initially, from a little before I was born until I turned three, and another four years after we came back from Italy."  
"Eight years in a country and you still can't speak the language fluently? Forgive me, but that's just ludicrous."  
"I know! I'm beginning to think she does this on purpose so she has an excuse to send me on errands."  
"Haha, that might be it!" A little computer generated voice announced that Junpei had new mail to check, and he nonchalantly turned right back around to view it. "Sorry, I have a very talkative friend e-mailing me right now. Go on though, I'm still listening."  
"Oh. Um…" She couldn't find anything interesting to say for a few moments; she was too absorbed with analyzing Junpei's behavior. He was practically ignoring her for the second time in, what, a minute or two? That definitely didn't seem too much like love-sick stalker behavior. Back when they'd first met, he did everything he could to get her to pay attention to him; now she WAS paying attention, (though it was for the wrong reason) and he seemed to have better things to do than talk to her!  
He looked over his shoulder, and she realized that she hadn't spoken for too long. When she realized this, Junpei realized that Izumi was staring blankly at him, and he quickly turned back around and rapidly tapped the keys, pretending he hadn't looked at all.  
Ha, of course. Junpei wasn't ignoring her because he wasn't interested in her, he was ignoring her so he wouldn't come off as TOO interested. He was just pretending to be aloof. That made more sense. It was a ploy to throw her off the scent.

"So anyway, what have you been up to?" she asked. She doubted he'd come out and say that he'd sent the message straight out, but maybe he'd been doing other suspicious behaviors in the meantime.  
"Studying a lot for finals. This year I have more schoolwork than last year and the year before that, and next year I'll probably have more. Not sure how I'm going to juggle it all."  
"You will, I'm sure." Izumi tried to crane her neck to see his facial expression, but couldn't get much of a glimpse. Nonetheless, he seemed to sense her spying, because without sending his most recent e-mail he suddenly minimized the box and turned around again. He looked a little peeved.  
This, of course, surprised her. "I wasn't trying to see what you were writing or anything," she assured him, not that she would elaborate on what she HAD been trying to do.  
"Oh…" He smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, no offense. I just thought you were reading over my shoulder; it's just kind of awkward, you know. I'm getting too paranoid."  
"I don't mind, I'm not offended or anything." And with that, he turned right back around again, brought up the e-mail, and resumed typing for a few short seconds before he sent the e-mail off.  
"Who are you talking to?" she asked, purely out of curiosity.  
"A friend of mine I never really speak to. He and I have vastly different schedules, so we're not usually on at the same time."  
"Why not use IM?"  
"Just in case we have to leave the conversation and pick it up again later." He picked up a heavy textbook that was lying on his desk, one that, despite his recent assurance that he was very busy with studying, didn't look as though it had been getting a lot of usage. "How good are you at remembering history? It's not my strongest subject, though you'd think it should be pretty easy. All of the stuff already happened, so it's not like we're learning anything new year to year, right?"  
Izumi wasn't quite sure if he was trying to change the subject, or she was being too sensitive. She was also pretty sure that he was lying; as far as she knew, Junpei was pretty spot-on when it came to history. He certainly had a penchant for dates and names. It seemed like a half-hearted bluff to change the subject; now that she thought about it, she was sure that's all it was.  
"History's so-so with me. Italy's history was more interesting to be honest."  
"I'll bet. Italy was actually doing things and changing the world while we were sitting back and twiddling our thumbs for a few hundred years because we refused to leave the country."  
"And when we finally did leave the country, we did it for war and conquest. We suck."  
"Shh. That part's a secret."

At first he seemed intent on getting out notebook paper and writing implements to begin doing some kind of studying, but he apparently lost the heart for it, and just put it all away again. There was no e-mail he was replying to and no work he was doing, not right now anyway; it seemed like the opportune moment for Izumi to start really getting into the questioning.  
"You seem pretty preoccupied with something," she prodded gently.  
"I guess I am," he replied. "But so do you. You've been really tense since you walked in here."  
"You too." The computer announced that Junpei had received yet more e-mail. He paused for a moment, possibly debating whether or not he should check it, but in the end he spun around to face the screen. "Not to mention you've been finding ways to ignore me ever since I walked in here."  
He hadn't even begun typing; he just exited out of the box, and then turned to face Izumi again. "I'm not ignoring you Izumi-chan. You kind of caught me while I was in the middle of a few things."  
"It just seems like you purposely don't want to talk to me for some reason." She was pretty sure he avoided her eyes for a few seconds after she said this. Pretty sure. He seemed fidgety, maybe a bit uptight. It was starting to become profoundly obvious that he was hiding something, and she was positive that she knew what it was. "Like you have something you need to tell me."  
"Not at all. If I had something to tell you, I'd tell you! Simple as that." He said this with a shrug and a laugh, like it really was as simple as that and there was nothing else to it. But he still seemed shrewd, still seemed to be avoiding her gaze.  
Izumi had no doubt in her mind now; Junpei had surely sent her the letter, it was written all over his face.  
This was it; now was the time to address the real matter and get it over with. It was only too easy. She smugly replied, "How about you start telling me about a letter you sent me?" And she waited for his reaction.

Or, lack thereof. Junpei didn't look particularly affected by the statement at all. Rather, it seemed the words had absolutely no effect on him whatsoever. He thought for a moment, silently, and then he said back, sounding utterly bemused, "What letter are you talking about, exactly? Like an e-mail?"  
"A letter-letter. The one you put in my locker today."  
"I'm not really sure what you're talking about."  
It didn't even occur to her that he might be telling the truth; it was impossible. Junpei was surely the culprit and he was obviously trying to weasel his way out of the truth. "This letter that you sent me." She pulled out the letter and opened it, taking a hesitant glance at its embarrassing contents before standing and passing it off.  
He smoothed it out as she sat down again, and he read it slowly, possibly twice over. It seemed utterly foreign to him, and he kept shaking his head.  
"Well?" Izumi pressed.  
"Izumi-chan," he started, but didn't finish. His eyes were scanning it again, and he shook his head again.  
"What?" she insisted, demanding an answer. "You did send it to me, didn't you?"  
"I'm sorry, but…no, I didn't. I've never seen this letter before. I don't know who sent it to you, but it definitely wasn't me."  
"Bullshit." She'd utterly convinced herself that Junpei MUST have sent her the letter; it was simply the only option, despite the fact that she still had three other culprits to investigate. "Of course it must have been you! It sounds like something you'd write and you had a crush on me forever, and now you've been acting really awkward ever since I walked in."  
"Well…" He looked over his shoulder towards the computer, but he didn't exactly reply. Now that he was put on the spot, he seemed kind of shy, though ordinarily he'd be bursting to defend himself if he wasn't guilty. He never took accusations lying down. This Izumi decided was yet another clue indicating his guilt. Then he said, "You're right in that I 'had' a crush on you. 'Had,' as in have had in the past but not the present. I'm really sorry Izumi-chan, but I haven't had a crush on you for a few years now."  
"Junpei, I'm not mad or anything." It didn't even register with her that he was possibly telling the truth; he was obviously just trying to get out of it by lying. The more he denied it, the more awkward he seemed. "I just wanted to know, and I'm sorry, but I wanted you to know that I didn't feel the same."  
"Izumi-chan, it wasn't me! I'm probably least likely to have done it!"  
"Why is that?"  
He seemed caught between a rock and a hard place, unable to decide how best to offer this information, but eventually he just sighed, and said very frankly, "I've already got a girlfriend."  
Izumi was so taken aback that she couldn't reply for a few seconds; she just stared at him, disbelieving.  
"You've never met her," he assured her. "I met her online. She's the 'friend' I've been talking to; she lives in Sapporo. We were trying to figure out how to meet up either this weekend or next, and we've been trying to set something up for a few weeks. That's why I was kind of ignoring you when you walked in."  
"I don't understand…" It was like Junpei was speaking in some other language or something. "Why didn't you just say who you were talking to?"  
"Well, I don't really want people to tease me for it. Takuya especially. You aren't allowed to tell Takuya, by the way," he warned sternly. "Tell Kouji and Kouichi and Tomoki if you want, but Takuya isn't allowed to know. He'll taunt me forever."

It was starting to sink in that Junpei may possibly be telling the truth. Possibly. Then she heard a little voice announce that Junpei had received another e-mail. "Let me read it," she said adamantly when he turned around to open it. "As proof that you're telling the truth."  
"I don't have to prove anything to you, you know." He didn't exactly sound angry or defensive or even like he meant to be rude; it seemed more like he was pointing out the obvious and he didn't realize how it came off. But Izumi was stung by it. It was probably this more than anything that convinced her that Junpei wasn't Anonymous.  
"I just meant," she began to say in an effort to explain herself, but Junpei cut her off.  
"Here, this is our entire conversation today." He moved out of the way and let her read it as he slowly scrolled through the e-mail. It went in reverse order, from most recent to least, but she could see that the conversation was exactly as Junpei explained. He and this person were trying to see each other, even though the correspondent lived in the far north and it was going to be a pain to even take the train. She was looking at something like a 30+ hour trip, one way, and they were working out the math for how much it would cost. None of the e-mails were mushy or romantic or anything, but Izumi didn't think just some friend would go through all that trouble to see just some friend, especially in the middle of the school year when she probably couldn't even stay that long. Only lovers would go through all this bother to see each other. It couldn't have been Junpei.  
"So do you believe me?" he asked with trepidation. He had the cursor hovering over the little X, waiting to close the window as soon as she was finished.  
"Yeah, I guess so." He closed the e-mail and looked pretty relieved about it. The relief didn't overshadow the awkwardness from both of them though; it was abundant and it was suffocating, especially on Izumi's part. It was less embarrassing to catch Anonymous than it was to wrongly accuse someone innocent. "I'm sorry I backed you into a corner with that. I guess that wasn't the best approach."  
"It's okay, I guess I understand why you'd think it was me after all that time." He laughed, "Of course you decide to finally pay attention to me right after I start dating someone else. Great timing, Izumi-chan."  
This part didn't exactly amuse her, mostly because she had now resigned to the fact that the search for Anonymous WASN'T over and she still had to investigate the other three boys in the group. She wasn't looking forward to it, especially after how disastrous the conversation with Junpei had been. But she shortly laughed anyway, and checked the time. She still had a few hours to check into the other three, and hopefully they would agree to see her.

"So what's the story behind the note?" Junpei asked, truly sounding clueless and curious for the explanation.  
"I found it in my locker today. It really bothered me, and I figured it had to be either you, or one of the other guys in the group. So I'm going to talk to them about it and see if someone confesses."  
"Why bother? He obviously didn't want you to know who he was quite yet. If you wait a while he'll probably send you another letter, and that one will probably be more indicative of who it is."  
"But I don't want to just wait around! It's weird to me, it's kind of like someone is stalking me! I just need to find him and get this over with."  
Junpei shrugged. "Whatever puts your mind at ease, Izumi-chan. Who's left?"  
"I was going to see Kouji next," Izumi said, and got a chuckle in response. "How is that funny?" she asked indignantly.  
"I don't know. I just can't imagine Kouji doing something like this. He's too serious, he'd think this was all nonsense."  
"Maybe, but if you didn't do it, I think it might've been him."  
"It's possible," Junpei conceded; it really didn't seem like he thought much about it either way, like it wouldn't concern him if Kouji was in fact secretly admiring the girl he'd had the crush of a century on. This just added on to Izumi's newfound confidence that Junpei was not Anonymous. He was a dead end. "And I guess out of the remaining three, he's probably the most likely one to have done it. Just don't get too upset if he is. Or if he isn't," he tacked on as a second thought.  
"I understand." She stood, and then started to say again, still sounding embarrassed, "Thanks, Junpei. I'm really sorry again for intruding-" But Junpei just waved the apology off, and didn't seem the least bit sore at her.  
"Don't worry about it, just take care of yourself." He passed her back the letter and stood to escort her out. "Good luck, by the way. I can already tell this is probably going to turn into a massive headache for you."

_

* * *

_

Hey Kouji, whatcha doin?

With Junpei officially classified as "not the stalker," Izumi moved on to the next most likely culprit on her list, Kouji, and she did it as soon as she stepped out the door of the Shibayama household. Kouji was better with cell phones and their uses than Junpei, but he didn't think to check his very often because no one ever really sent him anything.  
She was anticipating at least a twenty minute wait, maybe more, but she lucked out and got a reply almost immediately._  
__Exploring new found freedom. Turns out I don't have to go to work today and I don't know what to do with myself.  
_He also typed out insanely long and correct replies. This didn't bother her at all, especially not when Kouji had just admitted to being free._  
__Want to hang out 4 a few mins?:)  
__I don't feel like going anywhere, and I was about to go get dinner.  
_Typical Kouji; directly contradicting himself in fifteen words or less in an attempt to be antisocial._  
_Feeling awkward about inviting herself along, but equally as determined to figure out if Kouji was the culprit, she replied:_ooh, can i join you? I'm starved.  
_This time she had to wait few minutes before receiving a reply: ___Yeah, I guess. I'll forward you directions. _

Even if her gut instinct had obviously been wrong before, she decided on the spot that Kouji was guilty of sending her the anonymous love letter. Why else would he have waited such a notable time before sending such a short text? He was clearly embarrassed, that's why. He didn't want to be too near her after sending her a weird letter like that and he didn't want to risk hanging out with her. He would break a few minutes into the meal; she was sure.  
She eventually received precise and detailed directions, along with the text: _I'll meet you out front.  
_He didn't exactly SOUND like he was a deluded, lovesick, helplessly hopeful stalker who would send her a pathetic love note. He sounded like he always did, stand-offish and straightforward.  
Then again, hadn't she said herself that the love note had been straightforward?  
It HAD to be Kouji, no doubt about it.

But wait…  
It occurred to her that if Kouji was in love with her, she'd just inserted herself into a very date-like situation with him. Oh, crap. Crap! What if it was him, and while they were eating he tried to do…do…love things?  
Okay…well, maybe she should LET him if he tried. She shouldn't say anything, that's it. Just let him give himself away. He could hold his feelings in for some time, oh she knew, but he'd break eventually under the pressure, or at least she hoped he would. At the first sign of lovey-dovey action, she would put a stop to it and see that he was set straight. That was better than coming straight out and confronting him anyway; the approach had clearly failed with Junpei.

Kouji was already at the little café when she arrived, and he looked like he'd been impatiently waiting for several minutes; it was like him to show up early, and like him to be ruffled at an unexpected change in his plans.  
Now Izumi had an even BETTER idea. Maybe Kouji wouldn't come out of his shell, but he would with a little tempting.  
"Hi Kouji!" she greeted enthusiastically the moment she saw him, and she flew into him, giving him a tight hug in the most girlfriendish way she knew possible; the assault didn't faze him at all, and he didn't so much as blush.  
"Hi," he said shortly, as though he were annoyed that she'd come at all. However, he seemed unbothered by the intrusion into his self-asserted personal space bubble, and that alone was a good indicator. Kouji didn't like to be touched, but he was letting her touch him. Good start.  
"How're you doing?" When the overabundance of affection had failed, she'd decided to tone it down again. Kouji didn't react to the abrupt change.  
"Alright. I'm kind of annoyed I'm not working today to tell you the truth; you know how bad I want a dog." Kouji's old dog had recently passed due to a myriad of health problems, mostly genetic, and he was devastated by the loss. Now he desperately wanted a new dog, one backed by a good breeder and a guarantee that the dog would be clear of these problems.  
"I know how bad you want some expensive pedigree symbol of dog perfection instead of a poor homeless dog like your father already offered to adopt for you. Jerk."  
"Yeah, well, at least I'm willing to work for my overindulgence." They sat at a little table under a miniscule umbrella; it was not a very fancy or expensive place, but it was not exactly commonplace either. It also wasn't too romantic, which probably made both of them comfortable.  
"I barely saw you during school today," Izumi noted. "Where'd you disappear to? I usually run into you like eight times a day."  
"Well, for the first half of the day I was making sure my brother wasn't dying. He's caught something and he's doing really bad."  
"Oh, I'm sure he has some terrible, unheard of, positively dreadful incurable illness," she teased. For Kouji, at least when it came to Kouichi, a sneeze was a cold, a cold was the flu, and the flu was pneumonia and bronchitis and malaria all in one.  
Kouji scowled and turned his attention to the menu. "Probably not, but he still wasn't doing too well."  
"Oh, I understand. You're just concerned for him. That's really sweet is all."  
"Yeah."

Kouji withdrew, and there was uncomfortable silence for a few minutes while their order was taken and they received glasses of water. Izumi was used to the way he acted around people now; she figured once he got comfortable, he'd be a little more willing to chatter.  
"I saw Junpei a little while ago," she said, hoping to just bring some kind of conversation into existence.  
"Yeah? I talked to him a little earlier, but man, I haven't seen him in forever."  
"You need to hang out with us more, that's why."  
"Yeah, you're right. It's been forever since I've really talked to you guys."  
"Well, Mister-I-Never-Answer-My-Phone, that wouldn't be such a problem if you, well, answered your phone."  
"Oh, just send me a text. I'll read it eventually."  
"We're in the new age of technology Kouji, we're supposed to have the gratification of instant connection, i.e. talking on phones!"  
"Funny; for some reason everyone seems more interested in texting than actually utilizing a phone as a phone, and here I'm getting yelled at for it."  
They received their food; Kouji, who'd initially claimed he was very hungry, had ordered what Izumi considered one of the least appetizing dishes in the country, one that made her sometimes wish she'd just stayed in Italy. Ikuradon. Rice and fish eggs. Eeewww.  
"Don't knock it 'til you've tried it," he offered when he saw the glances of disgust Izumi was shooting in the general direction of his bowl. She was mostly assimilated back in her native country and accepted the more unusual dishes, but it was certain cultural cuisine like raw fish eggs that made her wish fervently to be back in the land of pasta.  
"It's just…how can you EAT that?" she said with a disgusted scowl.  
"Fish eggs? They're not that bad. They're kind of…well, they taste kind of like-"  
"Please don't describe them!" Kouji raised a brow.  
"Why not?"  
"Because then whenever I eat anything that matches your description, I'll feel like I'm eating fish eggs!" She gagged and a chill went down her spine as she imagined tasting the little pink delicacies. Kouji simply grinned and broke his chopsticks. Izumi couldn't decide if the grin was simply him humoring her, or a secret subtle hint that he was one lovesick puppy. Kouji grinned for strange reasons, and he had a lot more going on in his mind than he let on.

"Soo…did you know that Junpei has an internet girlfriend?" Izumi took a large bite of a spicy kimchee burger after she spoke, and she tried to avoid watching the chopsticks maneuver through the spawn in the bowl. She was so preoccupied with ignoring the nauseating fish eggs that she forgot that she was supposed to be critically eyeing Kouji for subtle body language that would indicate he was in love with her.  
"No, that's news to me. Interesting news, actually. When did this happen?"  
"I don't know really, I just found out today."  
"Huh. Well, I guess that's nice. Never did like the idea of internet relationships though; I don't think they'll last."  
"Apparently he's been talking to this girl for some time." She leaned in a little closer, eyes innocently wide and speaking in a painfully obvious falsetto. "Do you think one of our own could be in love?"  
As she leaned forward, he leaned backward. Izumi didn't know whether he was consciously avoiding her or just Kouji's usual method of retreating from close contact. "I wouldn't ever call something like that love, not when you've never met the person."  
"Oh." She withdrew, he returned to his ikuradon.  
"It's difficult and frustrating enough to be in a relationship with someone you know pretty well and spend a lot of time with; I don't understand why anyone would pretend to be in a serious relationship with someone they _don't_ even know. I think internet relationships are just plain stupid. But I won't tell Junpei that," he amended afterwards, figuring he'd gone off course a little. Izumi on the spot decided this was a key clue; Kouji usually didn't ramble or rant about things, and she was pretty sure all of that could have been considered a rant.  
"Neither will I. He seemed happy though."  
"And I guess that's all anyone should care about. We all just want to be happy, right?"  
"Yeah."

There was strained silence again for a few minutes. Izumi quickly finished chomping down her kimchee burger and Kouji slowly and delicately ate ikuradon, and neither of them seemed to be paying any attention to the other. Kouji was staring off into space, not purposely ignoring Izumi but probably thinking of ten other things at once.  
"Hey Kouji."  
"Hmm?"  
"What would make you happy?"  
"I dunno. That's a strange question."  
"It's really not, we just finished talking about it. What are you hoping to do in life that'll make you happy?"  
"Are you asking me what I want to be when I grow up? Seriously?"  
"No, silly. I'm asking what makes you happy."  
"How do you define happiness? I'm pretty happy right now, to be honest. No, that's a bit strong; I'm more 'content' right now. That all I'm expecting out of life: contentment. If I get that, I'm set for the rest of my life."  
"Are you, now?" HA. That was it. Kouji totally just blew it. That was definitely something a lecherous stalker would say. He didn't care about anything else, he was just happy to live in the now, right there, and in the current now it incidentally happened to be with her. The end, Kouji was anonymous.

Izumi was about to finally confront him on this, but the waitress appeared, with a rather intimidating bill. She suddenly, shamefully remembered that she hadn't brought any money at all.  
"Splitting it," Kouji said initially until he noticed that Izumi was blushing bright pink and was making no movements towards anything that might be hiding money. He sighed, and corrected himself: "Never mind, together. Here." And as if it were no trouble at all, he handed her a debit card, and sent her on her way, not at all bothered and or even a little sore towards Izumi.  
This was the kicker. Forget that Izumi couldn't have paid for the meal to begin with; the point that he was just casually taking care of the bill made it FACT. It was finally time to act.  
She stood up and assumed a full-on glare, staring determinedly at her friend who was suddenly pretty confused.  
"That's a funny way of thanking me."  
"So it WAS you, wasn't it?" she accused, quiet to where others couldn't hear, but still strong enough to be dramatic. Kouji was still bemused.  
"It was me what? What did I do?"  
"You're the one who slipped the anonymous letter in my locker today, aren't you? You're in love with me and you can't admit it!" His mouth dropped a little, like he might have possibly said something in response to this, but she dozed on. "You said, 'I can't tell you, but one day I'll show you.' I think just by watching you it's obvious you like me! So okay, just come out and say it. I won't be angry or anything, I just need some closure okay?" He didn't immediately reply to this, so she insisted: "And I KNOW it's you! It has to be you; who else could it be? So just fess up!"

The look of confusion and bewilderment had fallen from his face; now he was giving her his best "I'm talking to a very slow and/or challenged person and I don't want to offend them" face. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said flatly, and that was that.  
"What?"  
"That's it. I don't know what on earth you're going on about."  
"THIS, of course!" She yanked the letter out and threw it in front of him. He didn't quite pick it up, but he did use his hand to smooth it out and he sped through it in a few seconds.  
"You really think _I_ wrote that? Me?"  
"Well…yeah." She was becoming a little less sure by the second; she had the sense to sit down again. Kouji didn't quite have anything to say yet.

The waitress returned with the card slip and Kouji signed it, taking care of tip as well. When she was gone, Izumi hissed, "You're taking care of lunch and everything and you've been sort of uncomfortable talking with me all this time. You didn't even really want to meet me in the first place because you knew I'd find out, right?"  
"I'm paying for dinner; this is my dinner, I don't know about you; because I know you don't have any money. Excuse me for putting myself on a pedestal, but I like to think I'm a gentleman. And I'm not uncomfortable with you; you know how I come off some times."  
"Just admit it, Kouji! I'm SURE it's you!" She wasn't really sure anymore, but she was hoping that maybe, possibly, if she pushed him hard enough, he would actually admit it.  
"It's not," he said again, as if ending the conversation entirely. And funnily enough, it did.

Kouji stood up from the table and paused for a few seconds to tie up his bandana again. Then, without even saying goodbye or so much as acknowledging Izumi whatsoever, he began walking away.  
"Hey, wait a second! You can't just get up and leave!" She leapt up to follow him, and even when she caught up to him and walked at his side, he calmly continued on. He didn't seem especially intent on getting away from her. "How can I know for sure it wasn't you? It has to have been!"  
"When did you get this letter?" he asked calmly and rationally.  
"In school today, it was in my locker."  
"Okay…when?"  
"Between 2nd and 4th period."  
"Then it couldn't have been me. The end." She was taken aback by such blunt denial.  
"What? Who says it couldn't have been you? It totally could have been!"  
"I was making sure my brother wasn't dying, remember? I was on the other side of the school when this ridiculous letter was delivered. Ask Kouichi; ask the school nurse."  
Izumi suddenly realized that he was right. He'd already stated early in the conversation that he'd spent the morning tending to his sick brother, even before he'd needed an alibi. And he suddenly had one; a solid one, actually, that she could confirm with multiple people. And all of a sudden, Kouji wasn't the stalker. He couldn't be. "So you're saying it really wasn't you, and you have no idea who sent it?"  
"I'd have guessed Junpei if you hadn't just told me he had obtained an internet girlfriend," he offered. "And I'm assuming you thought so too; that's why you discovered that little secret of his today. I'm assuming you then moved on to me, and now that you've figured out it's not me, you're going to move on to whoever happens to be next on your list. Personally I'm guessing Takuya; personally I say it wasn't him either."  
"…Can you read my mind?"  
"It's not that hard to figure out what's going on when you think about it. I guess I don't blame you for thinking it was me if Junpei wasn't right."  
"Why's that?" she asked suspiciously.  
"I don't really know. I'm pretty sure myself it wasn't Kouichi and I find it hard to believe it was Takuya, so if you've eliminated Junpei, I can see you coming to me."  
"But…"  
"But it wasn't me. So it must be someone else." This he said with such a "this-is-an-obvious-fact" tone of voice that Izumi found it hard to believe he was lying. Besides, why would he purposely try and point the guilty finger at himself? The true culprit would do anything to steer her in a different direction.  
"I think you're just trying to confuse me! If you just distract me and make me think it wasn't you, then…"  
"Izumi, I'm sorry, but I just didn't send you that letter." She was looking carefully at his face, hoping to see a tell-tale blush or a look of discomfort or SOMETHING that gave him away. Kouji looked the same as he always did; cold and distant, with no emotion what-so-ever.  
"It really wasn't you, was it?" she mumbled.  
"Sorry to disappoint you, but I've never felt like that towards you." He cleared his throat and finally looked a little uncomfortable, looking for words that wouldn't sound incriminating. "I don't love you romantically because I love you like a sister, like I do Kouichi sort of; does that make sense? I'm sorry if you got your hopes up or something…"  
"No, no, it's not that," she hurried to explain. "I wasn't HOPING it was you, like I felt like that towards too you or something, I just really wanted to find out who it was so I could tell them I didn't like them."  
"That's kind of cruel, don't you think? Just ignore it; they'll figure it out one of these days."  
"I'd rather take the problem head-on; I just don't want to worry about getting more letters."

Izumi checked the time and decided it was getting way too late for her to spend any more time with Kouji if she wanted to investigate the other two before night came. She'd already decided that Kouji was a dead-end, and that meant moving on to Takuya. Still, she walked with him on the sidewalk, and tried one last time to get his opinion.  
"Why do you think it wasn't Takuya?"  
"It didn't sound like anything he'd write in a million years. Besides, I know for a fact that Takuya had a crush on you about three years ago, but gave it up. You might not know this, but we all agreed on some unofficial Izumi dating rules about two years ago; Takuya invented them. They're purposely designed so that NONE of us is allowed to get with you."  
"Takuya came up with something like that?" she asked incredulously.  
"I helped," he tacked on afterwards, almost self-consciously. "We all still follow the rules to this day. So I don't think it was any of us at all or we'd be breaking the rules. Love notes are specifically a no-no."  
"You know, you guys can't exactly come up with some kind of complex dating rules about who can and cannot be with someone without even informing that someone. That's a little messed up."  
"Is it? You're the one running around trying to find this note sender because of how badly you don't want to be with any of us." He paused, and then asked, hesitantly, "Are you sure you're not just looking for this person because you want them to say to your face that they love you, so you can just dump them?"  
"Why do you ask?"  
"Like I said before: it just sounds cruel. I'm just trying to figure out why the hell this is bothering you so much. Is it really such a big deal that someone sent you some silly letter?"  
"Yeah, it is. Even if you guys have some weird rules in place, I think one of you broke them. I really think it was someone in the group."  
Kouji shrugged. "Try Takuya then. Maybe he insisted we all adopted the rules because of his own issues; if I can't have her, nobody can, et cetera."  
"Then maybe because he knows no one else thinks they're allowed to make a move on me, he's in the clear for making his own move?"  
"Sounds like your best bet at this point. Maybe there's a more love-dovey side to Takuya than we know."

Before she left him, she glared at him one last time, trying to force him to drop her gaze. He didn't; he was a champion at glaring himself. "You know, I still sort of think it was you."  
"I'm sorry I can't help you anymore, Izumi. All I can say is what I've already said: I did not write that letter."  
And based on how firm, serious, and totally stoic his face looked, he was telling the truth.

Kouji was not the stalker.

Moving on.

* * *

It was starting to annoy her how much she was discovering about all her friends without actually discovering the main thing she wanted to. Junpei secretly had a girlfriend and Takuya had secretly had a crush on her and then invented crazy dating rules, and Kouji apparently felt the same about her as he did Kouichi, which was bad, because she didn't want him hovering over her as if she was knocking on heaven's door after a particularly violent sneeze.  
Takuya she was sure she could handle though. She was never totally sure what she would do if the other two had suddenly come out and admitted affection towards her, but she'd been head butting with Takuya ever since she'd met the guy. This one would be easy, that is if he was the stalker in the first place.  
She hoped Takuya wouldn't suddenly become super mushy and ultra sensitive when the love topic came up. She didn't mind butting heads with him now and then, but she wouldn't know what the hell to do if he started crying and talking about his heart being broken or something.  
Ugh. Maybe Junpei was right; maybe she should just wait for him to send her another letter, maybe the second one would have more clues…

But she'd already come so far, it seemed stupid to give up now.

Izumi exited Shibuya station alone (while she had no money for lunch, she did have a train pass for transportation) and began heading in the direction of the Kanbara household. She knew Takuya would answer a prompting text very quickly, so she waited until she was only a block away before sending her third message:  
_Hey Takuya! I'm in the area, mind if I stop by for a few mins?  
_Sure enough, she only took a few steps before her phone buzzed back in reply:  
_Good timing! I just got home from practice. Sure, come over, but lemme shower first._

For about thirty seconds she paused where she was, and then she continued again. Takuya answered his phone quickly and performed simple tasks quickly. It didn't take him much time to get things done.  
Only a few minutes later she arrived at the Kanbara household door, and knocked loudly. She heard a young male yell out "I GOT IT" and then an older one somewhere deeper in the house yell back "NO YOU DON'T." Then- "WHY NOT?" and- "BECAUSE THAT'S MY FRIEND THERE." Also, "SHUT UP, YOU DON'T OWN THE DOOR, YOU JERK." In addition to that, "LET ME GREET MY OWN COMPANY, TWERP." And finally a woman yelling out: "SHUT UP BOYS, AND SOMEONE JUST GET THE DOOR."  
The fun of a dysfunctional family.  
She knocked again.

The door flung open and revealed the younger Kanbara son, Shinya, who was grinning from ear to ear and looked positively ecstatic that he'd beaten his brother to opening the door and thus got first dibs on filling her mind up with all sorts of misconceptions. "Hi Izumi-san! What's up? Why'd you come visit us so late? Is Onii-san taking you out on a date? He just showered before you came. You should dump him. Your hair looks nice today, Izumi-san!"  
The younger brunet was violently pulled away from the door and shoved elsewhere, and in his place reappeared the elder Kanbara son, who was trying to hide his embarrassment with a sheepish grin. Indeed, he had just showered, and then quickly gotten dressed; his hair was still soaking wet and plastered to his head, and a white towel was loosely draped over his shoulders. "Hey, what's up? Ignore him; he has some sort of vendetta against me today."  
She smiled and nodded her head. "No problem, I was just-"  
"MOM! ONII-SAN JUST SHOVED ME!"  
To Izumi, Takuya whispered, "Hang on a second." He looked over his shoulder and yelled out, "DID NOT!"  
"DID SO!"  
From somewhere deeper in the house, a woman yelled: "PLAY NICE! DON'T MAKE ME CALL YOUR FATHER!"  
"Haha." Shinya stuck his tongue out at his brother, but quickly ceased the action when he realized there was still a pretty girl in the vicinity. "My brother is such a meanie sometimes, Izumi-san. You shouldn't be friends with him anymore. I can be your friend, you know."  
"_You_ can buzz off." Takuya hurried Izumi inside and closed the door, and began trying to make a run for his room. Shinya promptly followed along after them.  
"It's my house too! I can go wherever I want!"  
"Except in my room, which is where we're going."  
"Why?"  
"To get away from YOU."  
"You mean to have sex? You're going to go have sex aren't you? I'm going to tell Mom!"  
"Shinya-"  
"Let me hang out with you and I'll shut up!"  
"Izumi." He looked at her helplessly. "Please say something to him. Anything."  
Izumi paused a second too long to reply, and Shinya quipped back at his brother: "She's not going to be mean like you! She doesn't just want to get rid of me, right Izumi-san?"  
And Izumi finally told him: "You're absolutely right; I don't mind you being around at all. But Shinya, how about we hang out some other time? I've got to give an ultimatum to your brother right now."  
"Oh." The younger brunet looked a bit crushed. "Okay. You're not going to have sex though, right?"  
"If he tries anything, I'll kick him in the balls as hard as I can," she assured him.  
"Really?"  
"Wait, really?"  
"Yep, I promise."  
This cheered Shinya up immensely and his wide grin returned. "Okay! I'll talk to you later, Izumi-san!" And as the two elder teens began sneaking away again, Shinya entirely lost interest in them, and went off to find something else to do; someone else to bother.  
"You'll warn me beforehand if I accidentally do anything that deserves a ball-kicking, right?"  
"Maybe. Guilty conscious there, Takuya?"  
"No…it's just that now I'm going to be guarding my entire lower half for the entire duration of your stay, just in case."

Before closing the door to his room, Takuya looked around suspiciously, waited, feinted going inside, and then looked around again to ensure that his family was nowhere to be found. When he'd satisfied himself, he closed the door, and Izumi objected to this: "Can't you leave it open?"  
"I could, but when my door's closed Shinya officially has no excuse for spying on me. If it's open, anything I'm doing inside is free game for him to spy on as far as my parents are concerned."  
"Oh, I see." She was looking around for something to do or somewhere to sit; just something in general that wouldn't be awkward. She didn't like being alone in a closed room with a boy who could possibly have a huge crush on her. "I guess I don't understand things like that, since I don't have siblings."  
"You're so lucky. You don't have to deal with THAT on a daily basis, or worry if someone's going through your stuff, or wonder if someone's listening on the other line when you're on the phone…"  
"At least it's entertaining. Being an only child is lonely."  
"I guess. Still sounds like heaven to me."

She decided to sit at his desk, or rather, on his desk chair, as the surface of the desk itself was completely cluttered with random memorabilia ranging from school work to trash to electronic devices and/or components to said electronic devices.  
Takuya had removed the towel from his shoulders and was vigorously rubbing his head with it, and he was still going at it when he sat on his bed, directly across from Izumi. The towel completely covered his face, but from within the towel, a voice said, "So what's happening?"  
"Oh, nothing much. I didn't have a lot to do tonight, so I was just looking for someone to talk to."  
"I see." With a few last hard scrubs, Takuya pulled the towel off of his head, his hair a royal mess from the effort and only infinitesimally drier. He was running his fingers through it carefully, trying to smooth it out into "cool and purposely messy" instead of just "sloppy and all-over-the-place." Eventually he added, "I'm beat. I'm thinking about quitting soccer altogether; it's just so draining to wake up, go to school all day, go to practice all afternoon, come home, and do schoolwork until I go to bed. It's a lame life. I practically don't exist except to do those three things."  
"That was four things, wasn't it?"  
He paused, then started counting on each finger: "Wake up, go to school, go to practice, do school work. Huh, yeah, that's four…but waking up on its own isn't really an effort, so it doesn't count."  
"Says you. Waking up can eat up half of my morning all on its own!"  
"Not me," he laughed in reply. "That alarm goes off and I'm up. Give me caffeine and there's no stopping me!"  
Takuya threw the white towel into a corner and scooted further into his bed so he could lean on the wall. He propped his head up with his arms and moved around to get settled, and then, for the first time since she had seen him all evening, he was finally still.

Izumi was just beginning to concoct some clever plan on how to get Takuya to start talking about the important stuff when he asked, "Something on your mind?"  
She wasn't quite ready to get into the explanations yet and all that, so at first she just said, "Kinda," and left it at that.  
But then he added on, very plainly, "Did something weird happen today?" And she found herself getting straight to the point, a little too bluntly. Maybe it was better to just come right out and say it; working up to it slowly hadn't been a success with the other two.  
"Do you like me?"  
"Sure. You're a good friend. I've always liked hanging out with you."  
"That's not exactly what I meant, though."  
"I had a feeling it wasn't."  
For the third time today, Izumi pulled out the folded and wrinkly little love letter, and she held it out to him.  
"What's that?"  
"A note I got today at school. I think you wrote it." The bed wasn't very far away from the desk; he moved to sit on the edge and reached out for it, and took it from her. Initially he was concerned and his face was serious with worry; a few seconds after reading it he started grinning, and when he finished he just looked up at her and laughed. He just laughed.  
"What's so funny about it?" she asked, indignantly. "This is kind of serious, you know!"  
"Wow. I wish I could write something like that, Izumi. I mean, wow. I'm flattered you think I'm capable of writing something like that."  
"Don't try that on me; I know you act dumb and all, but we both know you're perfectly capable of writing something like that."  
"Maybe, if I borrowed bits of dialogue from a soap opera for inspiration." He handed it back to her, seemingly no more affected by its appearance than either of the two boys before him.  
"You really didn't send this to me?"  
"Of course not; not in a million years." Then he shook his head and immediately corrected himself. "I mean, no offense or anything! But I'd never send something like that to you. I mean, crap, I'm sorry; it's not like I'm saying that like I hate you or something, I just don't like you. I mean, wait, I just don't _love_ you."  
The awkwardness: a telling sign of desperate love, or a desperate attempt to redeem himself in order to avoid a swift kick in the balls?  
How could she tell? It sounded suspiciously like both.

"But…I'm curious." She looked back up at him. He really did look purely curious, not at all lovesick or hopeful or anything. "Why exactly did you come to me about this? I mean, seriously…"  
"Seriously, what?"  
"It's just, should I be concerned? I mean, reading that, I'm not exactly the first person I would've thought of. How'd you jump to the conclusion that it was me? Unless you…"  
…Crap. Crapcrapcrap. It was bad enough to have a stalker out there; worse that Takuya had become suspicious that she was the one lovesick for him. Ugh, this was all so frustrating! Why did boys always have to start thinking of things like this?  
"It's not like I read the letter and immediately thought, 'Takuya totally wrote this.' In fact, you're the third person I assumed must have done it," she informed him, perhaps a little too coldly. She was losing her patience with these boys.  
"Oh, okay." And in a way he looked relieved. Maybe, just a little bit. What did that mean? Was he relieved he wasn't the only suspect, or relieved that she didn't secretly love him? "Who else did you figure?"  
"I'm pretty sure it's someone within the group, so of course, you, Kouji, Junpei, and Kouichi."  
"No Tomoki?"  
"Tomoki couldn't have done it, I've already decided."  
"Hell, it was probably my brother. He has such a crush on you." He started laughing, like he thought the idea was hilarious, but the thought of a FIFTH possible stalker terrified Izumi. What if she had to investigate a SECOND Kanbara now? And it wasn't even someone from within the usual group! And everyone would think she was weird for "breaking up" with such a younger kid! The potential for disaster was huge…  
Takuya sobered up immediately and comforted her: "Hey, relax, if you got the note at school it probably wasn't him. I don't think he even knows how to get in our school."  
Of course; Shinya could be excused for the same reason Tomoki could. Same age; same excuse. No worry there. She was incredibly relieved.  
"Wait, I was the third person you went to? Who's left?"  
"Well…" Should she tell him? She still wasn't even totally sure that Takuya hadn't sent the letter. Sure he acted all innocent and didn't seem to be stalkerish at all, but that didn't REALLY mean anything; he could be lying. He had no solid reason as to why it couldn't have been him. It very well could have! He had ample opportunity, it wasn't like Kouji where he couldn't be in two places at once…  
"Well, what?" he prodded.  
"It's just that the others I've questioned so far had some reason that convinced me it wasn't them." Junpei with a secret girlfriend, Kouji on the opposite end of the school. What did Takuya have that excused him?  
"The fact that I can't write for shit isn't enough?"  
"Please. Like I said; you act stupid, but you're not. Pretending you couldn't have put words on a piece of paper isn't a valid excuse. For all I know you did send me this letter." Takuya was silent for a moment, and then he whistled.  
"Christ, you really think it was me who sent that."  
"And I have every reason to until you prove otherwise somehow."

They sat in silence for a minute; maybe two. They both felt extremely awkward, and the rising tension in the air didn't help the situation any. And all of a sudden, Takuya broke the silence:  
"You know, I had the biggest crush on you not long after we got back from the Digital World."  
'_Oh shit, here we go,' _she thought, and her heart started pounding. It WAS Takuya all along; of course.  
"It always annoyed me that Junpei was always going after you, and I got really jealous of you. I even invented these stupid rules so that no one was allowed to have you." He chuckled. "You know, you never did give me that date you promised."  
Izumi was trying to think of something tactical to say that would shut him up. She didn't want to hear confessions or revelations or anything like that; she knew who'd sent her the letter and Takuya had as good as confessed to loving her at this point. Now that she knew, she just had to stop everything before it all started getting out of control.  
"Takuya, I can't go out with you. It just wouldn't work out between us."  
The sudden interruption made him miss a beat, but he didn't seem ruffled by what she'd said. He finished up with: "But I don't love you anymore. I gave up on you when I realized I loved someone else."  
Izumi couldn't think for a moment. It was impossible to absorb the statement that Takuya had just made after the words he'd said before it. But Takuya…Takuya WAS the stalker! She'd already decided this! How could he not be? He'd practically admitted it!  
"I don't think I ever really loved you to begin with, I was really just infatuated with you I guess. Hell, I don't even know if I'm really in love with this person; I mean, I think I am, but I don't know if-" He stopped, and changed course. "Anyway. That's my reason. I'm too busy pining after someone else to pine after you. I'm sorry if that's disappointing to you or something."  
"Who else?" she demanded. "Who? Junpei showed me proof that he had someone else; you can't just pretend you have-"  
"Wait, wait, wait. Junpei's dating someone? When did this happen? Who is it?"  
Izumi smacked her forehead and then shook her head hard, so angry at herself she couldn't even speak. Great. Now Junpei was going to be pissed at her, and Takuya apparently wasn't the stalker, but how could he prove it? How could he really prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he wasn't lying?  
"Izumi, this is huge. This is gargantuan! You HAVE to tell me who-"  
"Stop it, just stop it! You can't just change the subject!" He was abashed.  
"I wasn't, it's just that Junpei-"  
"This is about YOU; how can I be sure that you really didn't send the letter? Feel free to inform me. I'm positive it was you; it has to be. And you're just lying about this pretend love interest so you seem innocent!"  
"I'm not lying!" he snapped. "You don't know!"  
"Then how about you tell me about this love interest, huh? Go ahead; clue me in."

Takuya lost all confidence. He looked extremely pained and a dark expression settled on his face. A couple of times he started trying to speak; he couldn't get words out.  
Izumi was sure this was it; this was the part where he was going to confess that there was no other lover, it was a lie, and in reality he was some deluded love-addled admirer who'd been dying to tell all his hidden feelings.  
Instead, she got: "You can't tell anyone. No one. Not a soul. Not even…just no one."  
She was taken aback at this unexpected development. Now she was just confused. There really was someone? "How can I confirm that it's true if I can't say anything?"  
"No one else knows. Not my parents or my brother or the rest of the group. Do you understand me? _No one._ You'll be the only person besides me who I've ever told. Hell, I won't even say it to my fish."  
"Who?"  
"Swear that you won't tell. For the love of God Izumi; you just can't tell anyone. Please. Blackmail me all you want but _you cannot tell anyone. _This is a matter of life and death here. Or, well…me living comfortably and living a life of shame."  
"Okay, Takuya. I swear. You know I won't say anything."  
"You _can't_; that is it, can not, not will not. You can't tell anyone; not your friends, not our friends, not even him."  
"I understand. Just tell me-" And a little light bulb went off in her head. She withdrew in surprise. "Him?"  
Takuya was biting his thumbnail, rigorously trying to tear it off. When he finally succeeded, resulting in a raw and bloody thumbnail, he moved onto his index. It didn't look like a show or a put-on; it looked real. He seemed truly freaked out by this whole exchange; he kept looking at his door, probably assuming that his brother was standing beyond it, struggling to catch a snippet of the conversation.  
"Takuya, him? HIM?"  
"Yeah. I'm g…" He lowered his voice, so quiet that Izumi could barely hear him say the damning words: "I'm gay. I think, maybe. I'm not sure. I could be bi. I don't even really know, you know? What do I know?"  
"Who is him?" No immediate answer. "Who the hell is HIM?"  
"Who do you think?" He ripped off his second fingernail, moved onto the third. "Kouji, naturally."

It was like the whole world was suddenly spinning out of control. She felt like she'd been sucker punched, she was so dizzy all of a sudden. How the hell was that even possible? How the HELL could one of the boys in the group like ANOTHER boy in the group? It had never even occurred to her that anyone would ever have a crush on anyone except her.  
In a way, though, it was a huge relief, albeit an extremely awkward one. There was no way Takuya would lie about something THAT serious and embarrassing; he must be telling the truth. Why would he go to such lengths to pretend he hadn't sent her that letter?  
"Izumi?"  
"Sorry, I spaced for a minute there. It's just, wow."  
"You believe me, right?" Then afterward, he added, "You're not a homophobe or anything?"  
"What? Oh; no, not at all. It doesn't bother me at all. I'm cool with it."  
"You believe me?"  
She thought about it for a few more seconds, and then sighed. "Yes, I believe you." He looked markedly happier at that point; he even smiled a little.  
"Okay. Good. Some people, you know…I don't know why, they all think it's so bad."  
"Yeah." She was still recovering from this sudden confession; could barely think of anything to say. She was practically speechless; it was like her entire vocabulary had just evaporated. "Does he know?"  
"Of course not. Kouji's not that way, at least I don't think he is. He'd punch me if I told him."  
"How will you know if you never try to admit it?"  
"You're in no position to be giving advice like that. Someone sent you a confession and you're tracking them down like they're a wanted criminal."  
Point taken.  
"So, it…it wasn't you either." She slumped back in the chair. "It wasn't you, or Junpei, or Kouji…"  
"Hey, you've already eliminated Kouji? That's good! That's something I was worrying about, I used to think he really liked you too…"  
She nearly jumped out of the chair in surprise. Maybe Takuya knew something that would lead her to anonymous! "Why's that? Did he ever say something?"  
He just stared at her, trapped between confusion and amusement. "Er, not really. This was all a few years ago, you see, when I thought I liked you too. Remember, I saw a rival in everyone; at the time I was sure Kouji was after you too, but I later decided it had all just been in my head."  
"He never said anything…?"  
"Not that I can remember."  
"Oh." And she slumped again.  
"It sounds like Kouichi is the only suspect left. So it's gotta be him?"  
"Yeah, I guess so." Now it was down to Kouichi? The last suspect, the one boy in the group she never expected? It was unreal.  
"Well, I don't know how he feels about you. I never got that vibe, but he's good at keeping secrets. I guess I can kind of see him sending you a note like that. Seems like something he'd do; you know he doesn't like confronting people directly."  
"You know, how do I know you're not lying about this Kouji thing?"  
Takuya leaned back in surprise; he seemed genuinely shocked at the accusation. "Why would I lie about that?"  
"It's just…I don't know, I never in a million years thought you'd say something about loving KOUJI of all people. And you definitely don't act gay! You don't show it at all. And you know that I know now, and still you don't act like it." This was her last ditch attempt at getting him to admit his lies, and it didn't change anything. He simply shook his head, and didn't even try to change his story; rather, he'd become kind of annoyed that he had to defend it.  
"Gay people don't really act 'gay,' Izumi. Sorry to burst your bubble."  
The bubble was sufficiently burst. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way," she amended. The last thing she wanted to do was make any more of her friends annoyed at her. Besides, she truly didn't have a problem with there being a closet gay in the group; it just seemed too unbelievable to be real.  
"Besides, I'm used to keeping that feeling inside. I can't afford to let it show, even if you already know. If I act all lovesick and desperate for him, it'll just hurt twice as bad when I get reality slapped in my face."  
"You're just always such an emotional person; I find it hard to believe you can be so cold about something you supposedly like so much."  
"Well, Izumi, not everything is always as it seems."

* * *

Izumi wasn't really sure what to do at this point. It wasn't Junpei, Kouji, or Takuya, and since it would be impossible for Tomoki to deliver the letter, that left only one option. When you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth, the truth being Kouichi.

But she never actually thought she'd get to him. She'd been so convinced of her ordered list producing a stalker before this point that she wasn't sure how to approach the guy. Furthermore, she just didn't know what she'd say to him if he was the stalker. She'd just never felt that way about him; he was sweet, but-  
Ah, crap. He was also Kouji's brother. Enter paranoid brother stalking her to ensure she wasn't going to break Kouichi's heart. She didn't want to insert herself into that.

This was different from all the other times; this time she knew it was Kouichi because there could be no other answer. She was sure that it hadn't been any of the other boys, and that meant it had to be him. Her new approach wasn't so much wondering how to be clever enough to get the truth out of him as much as it was how to be gentle enough so he wouldn't be hurt.

Kouichi didn't answer a prompting text, or a call, or a second text after that. Either he didn't have his phone on him, or he was ignoring her intentionally. And that meant…

It was getting too late to be running around now. She had to just go see him and confront him directly, that's all. He wouldn't expect it, so he'd be vulnerable. Hopefully he'd take it easy and he wouldn't be too upset or anything. Hopefully he didn't have his heart set on her returning his feelings.

Izumi arrived at the little apartment complex with a few minutes before dusk fell. She found the right number and stood before the door, hesitating. What to do, what to do…  
She shook her head, determined not to fall apart. She knew what she had to do; she didn't need to get all choked up with nerves or anything. She just simply had to tell him off; that was that. Tough luck if his feelings were hurt; this was the end of the whole bother, right here, right now. She knocked on the door, and waited.

No one answered.  
She waited, and no one answered.  
Confused, she knocked again.  
No one answered.  
…That was strange. She knocked again, louder.  
No one answered.  
She checked her phone to see if she'd received a reply; nothing. While it was out, she called his cell again, hoping that wherever he was he'd pick up. Nothing.

The hell? Was he out somewhere? If he was, why wasn't he answering his phone?

Izumi continued standing in front of the door, listening, waiting. She didn't really know what to do. All of this was supposed to end NOW; she needed to talk to Kouichi NOW. She'd already been through so much just eliminating all the other boys, and now that she finally had her man, he was just going to vanish into thin air?  
She knocked, firmly, one more time, and then she waited. After only a few seconds she was about to turn around and angrily march off when she heard a lock click, and then a second lock. When she returned to the door, it was opening, and Kouichi was opening it.  
Finally.  
But when he finally did and she saw him, it wasn't at all what she was expecting.

"Hey Izumi. What are you doing here?" His voice was a little raspy and hard to hear. He had a thick blanket wrapped around him and his hair was all messed up; judging by how squinty and rough his eyes looked, he was either sleep deprived or he'd just woken up. Then she remembered what Kouji had said a little earlier, and she blurted out:  
"Oh yeah, you're sick!" Kouji might have glared and said, "No shit," but his twin just patiently blinked at her, a little confused but obviously not angry at her.  
"Yeah. I actually have to thank you for waking me up; I've been asleep practically ever since I got home. Definitely not healthy."  
This either changed everything or changed nothing. Just because he was sick didn't mean he wasn't capable of delivering a love note before he went home. He'd definitely been at school today; she remembered seeing him early in the morning. The question was…  
"Can I ask you something? When did you go home today?"  
He rubbed his eyes, trying to think back to earlier in the day. If he was annoyed at being woken up just to be interrogated, he didn't show it, and if he was shy and uncomfortable around someone he supposedly had a crush on, he didn't show it. "Uh, let me see…I threw up during second period, then went to the nurse, and I think I ended up going home a little after third started. Kouji wanted to take me to the hospital; I told him he could if he was paying for it." He grinned, and her heart sunk. She'd been at her locker just before second period, and then Kouichi had left school before it had been discovered right before fourth. Unless he was running around shoving love notes in lockers while simultaneously throwing up, he wouldn't have had a chance.  
"Are you sure it was third when you went home?"  
"About half way through it. I wasn't so out of it that I was ignoring the bells." He tilted his head to the side a bit, looking concerned. "What's wrong, anyway? You're acting a little strange, Izumi."  
She was covering his face with her hands, trying to straighten it all out. It wasn't Kouichi, but it HAD to be Kouichi; it couldn't have been anyone else. But Kouichi hadn't had any TIME to deliver the note, not unless he was lying. But Kouji had given her this same spiel already, he'd confirmed the story hours ago before it even needed confirming. Unless they were both lying, which was possible. Twin brothers would definitely cover for each other.  
"Izumi?" He sounded very concerned now. "What's wrong? What did I say? Don't cry; come on, come inside for a minute and chill out. What's the matter?" She was about to indignantly reply that she wasn't going to cry, but she was. She was so damn frustrated with the whole bother that she was ready to cry, and she had to block her mouth with her fist to hide her quivering lips; without any resistance, the first tears fell. Either some other random stalker creep she didn't even know was sticking notes in her locker, or one of her boys had blatantly LIED to her face about something really important. "I know I'm sick, but I promise I haven't been spreading germs everywhere I go. Come on; my mom's still at work, but I can make you some tea."  
"That's okay," she got out, obviously crying now. "I need to go home."  
"Humor me and give me some company then; I've been all alone all day. Tea?"  
"J…juice."

A few minutes later she was sitting in the tiny little kitchen, drinking some kind of fruit juice without acknowledging the flavor. Kouichi was making tea anyway, and soup too. Every now and then he'd cough and make a dry, barking sound, and every so often he'd hide his face in his arm and sneeze. Despite his many hours of sleep, he still looked exhausted and a little flushed. He certainly looked and sounded sick enough; he definitely wasn't just pretending to try and make up a fake alibi of sickness to cover his tracks. That was another thought; if Kouichi had just thrown up and that had been the end of it, maybe he'd gotten really nervous and upset after dropping off the note and had thrown up due to bad nerves. But he seemed really sick…  
"You're sure you went home early in third period?" she asked again. She'd stopped crying, for the time being at least. She was still upset, but she wasn't going to burst into anymore tears, at least not in front of Kouichi.  
"Pretty sure. Ask Kouji if you want to be positive; I can't swear my life on it. But my mom came and picked me up, and she doesn't leave for work until about fourth period, so it must've been before then."  
"Of course."  
"Did you and Kouji make any pit stops other than the nurse?"  
"What do you mean?"  
"Like, did Kouji have to go to a locker or something…?"  
"Nope, we went straight there."  
"Do you know if he went to any lockers after he dropped you off at the nurse?"  
"I can't be sure. He stuck with me almost throughout third period; I presume he went back to class afterwards."  
"Did he look nervous, or antsy or like he was hiding something…?"  
"Not that I could see."  
He coughed again and rustled around in a cabinet until he found aspirin. He held a hand to his forehead for a few seconds, then shook two little pills out.  
"I was hoping my fever would have broken by now. I'm really hoping this'll pass soon; I don't want to have to see a doctor…"  
"You should probably go back to bed," she said as she began to stand up, but he waved her back down.  
"Sit for a bit; I've been asleep all day. Besides, you still haven't told me why you showed up on my doorstep in tears."  
"I didn't show up at your doorstep in tears," she mumbled.

Izumi didn't say anything but "Thank you," when he placed a cup of soup and a mug of tea in front of her, and she didn't say anything when he sat directly across from her, obviously determined to sit it out and hear what was ailing her. He had his own mug of tea and a bowl of steamy broth and noodles, but all he did was stir it and blow on it.  
"Did I do something?" he asked quietly.  
"I don't know; did you?"  
"I don't know. You're acting like I did something terrible and you can't bear to tell me what. I'm starting to feel like the bad guy here."  
"Based on what you told me, no, you can't have done anything. But you're the only one who could've done it! Unless the others were lying…"  
"What others?" He blew on a spoonful of soup and led it to his mouth, but he maintained eye contact. He truly looked unaware of what the whole problem was, and his concern truly seemed to be friendly concern, not romantically charged.  
"The other guys. Well, Junpei, Kouji, and Takuya anyway."  
"What would they lie to you about?"  
"There's this note I got today…" He didn't seem impacted by the statement at all; instead he just raised a brow and ate more soup. Kouichi wasn't as much of an emotional wall as Kouji was, and she was fairly sure that he would come out with it if confronted with the truth. "I think you sent it."  
"I don't think I gave you a note or anything."  
"I think you did." For the fourth and final time she revealed the love letter by anonymous, and placed it on his side of the table. Kouichi picked it up, and with tea in one hand and a love note in the other, he silently read it. Still, it didn't seem to affect him. This was starting to become suspicious; Kouichi usually REACTED more than this. This nothingness when it came to emotion on his part was just not right.

"First, Izumi, I'll tell you right now: I wouldn't have had the guts to deliver that letter. Even if I was in love with you, I'm not brave enough to drop off something like that knowing you might somehow figure out it was me. I'm not Kouji; I'm not that ballzy."  
"Point taken."  
"Second, as I already stated in not so many words, I don't love you." Finally, he looked very awkward, but this wasn't necessarily a sign; all four had looked very embarrassed when it came time to acknowledge to her face that they didn't love her. "I'm…I'm sorry. I know that must sound cruel, but I just don't feel for you that way."  
"I figured you'd say something like that." She took the note back; rather than look confused, he looked understanding.  
"I guess this is what the others were lying to you about."  
"Maybe. Either them, or you. One of you did this; I just know it. ONE of you is anonymous."  
"I couldn't help but notice; you left out Tomoki?"  
"He just never had a chance. I got the letter in my locker; for one he has no way of getting into our school, and for another even if he did, he wouldn't have any idea which locker was mine." He nodded.  
"So it had to be one of us. And you'd gone to everyone and saved me for last. Why me?"  
"Admittedly, you seemed least likely to have done it."  
"Should I be offended?" He smiled good naturedly; to her own surprise, she returned it.

"Since I didn't give you the letter, someone else must have. One of the three must've lied somehow."  
"But all of them sounded really truthful. They all seemed to have good stories, or excuses. No one seemed to stand out, not to me anyway."  
"Well, you know Junpei had that crush on you forever," he began, and she interrupted:  
"He's got a girlfriend. Internet girlfriend, I should say. I saw a few of their e-mails too." Kouichi looked very surprised.  
"No kidding? Well, that's a shocker. Good for him though."  
"Yeah. I thought it was him first too."  
"Takuya also had a mini-crush on you some time ago…"  
"He's…got this thing going on. It's a secret; I can't tell you. But I was pretty sure he was telling the truth."  
"What makes you so sure?"  
"It's just really personal. I don't think he'd invent a lie that personal just to get out of being a suspect."  
"Okay. Well, my brother was never the most romantically inclined, but…"  
"He was with you the whole time; he had no time to deliver it. He says he feels the same about me as he does about you; brotherly and protective, but not in love. He also said in not so many words that he finds me annoying."  
"But one of them has got to be lying."  
"Or it's you."

They stared at each other for a moment, analyzing each other. Kouichi didn't look shy or intimidated or anything to indicate that he was in love with her; Izumi just looked at his face, hoping to see a blush or lovey-dovey eyes shimmer and et cetera, and they just weren't there.  
"I'm sorry, Izumi," he said quietly after a few moments. "I didn't send that letter." He'd stopped touching his tea and soup; Izumi's remained untouched. "Are you okay?"  
"Yeah, I'm fine." She sniffled and wiped her eyes, determined not to cry again. "I just want it to end. I don't want to get any more letters. And I just want him to tell me the truth, whoever he is; I just want him to understand and forgive me, you know?"  
"You know, if you've approached the others in the same method you used to approach me, I doubt that anyone's ever going to send you a love letter again. You should probably just not worry about it."  
"But I need to know who sent this one! I've already spent so much time on it, and I just can't give up and go, oh well, guess I'll never know. Why don't any of my stupid friends have the balls to say this to my face?" Kouichi began laughing. "You don't have to lie, just TELL me so I freaking know…"  
"Wow, this really is bothering you, isn't it?"  
"Yes! I NEED to know!"

Kouichi took the note again and stared thoughtfully at it. He continued sipping tea and soup as he read and reread it, as though he'd truly never seen it before and needed to be reminded of everything it said. "Well, it was typed. That's smart."  
"Yeah, and it didn't come in an envelope or anything."  
"The wording's kind of…poetic, in a sense. When you read it aloud. I wonder if it was intentional?"  
"How is it poetic?" She'd read the note so many times that she had it memorized, but she'd never thought of it as poetry.  
"Just when you read it, it kind of sounds in time and purposeful." He chewed on a thought for a moment. "You know, Junpei's always been big on poetry. Not very good, mind you, just into it."  
"But I SAW some of the e-mails he and his girlfriend were sending back and forth. There were a lot of them spanning all different dates."  
"Were any of them romantic gushy goo?"  
"Well, no…"  
"Couldn't they have just been from a frequently contacted friend?"  
"He just didn't seem like he was lying, but, I mean… I guess he could have just pretended they were all from his girlfriend when they were from something else." Junpei had first claimed he was e-mailing a simple friend, not a girlfriend, and none of the e-mails she'd seen had been romantic. Maybe he HAD invented this girlfriend on the spot the second he needed a diversion. It wasn't impossible. "I don't know, I just didn't get that vibe like he loved me anymore."  
"Okay. Well, you know poetry is the bane of Kouji's existence, but-"  
"He sounded almost offended when I suggested he'd written something like that. Maybe that's why; it not only sounded love-struck and corny, but it sounded 'poetic.' Plus he WAS with you, right?" She said this kind of suspiciously, like she was hoping Kouichi would slip up somehow and reveal that he had been in cahoots with his brother all along.  
But Kouichi didn't even pause, didn't even consider telling another version. "Ah, that's right. He can be excused for the same reason I can. Though, maybe he delivered it after escorting me to the nurse. He certainly had time before slipping back to class."  
Izumi didn't think that Kouichi would pin the blame on his brother if they were secretly working together to avert suspicion. It would defeat the purpose. "Yeah, I thought that too." Kouji couldn't really be eliminated either.  
"Takuya may have tried to write a real poem, but it ended up being some flat faux poem-letter instead."  
"Takuya actually laughed in my face after he read the letter, like a real laugh, like I was suggesting he'd written half of Shakespeare's plays instead of a stupid letter."  
"Well, you're quick to shoot down any and all suggestions."  
"What's your reason for being unable to write the letter, exactly?"  
"Our printer's out of ink. Cartridges are expensive. It's getting to be a pain in the butt when I need to print schoolwork."  
"Right, and you couldn't print it somewhere else instead?"  
"You know, I suggest anyone else, you eliminate them immediately. But when it comes to me, you're too eager to single out anything that points to me. Are you sure YOU don't want it to be me?"

Izumi was quietly shocked for a moment. Was that the break she'd been looking for…? A friendly jest or a subtle attempt at confirming her feelings before he confessed? "I'm just pointing out the obvious," she finally said defensively, maybe a little more defensively than she meant to be. She added afterwards, before she could assess just how cruel it sounded: "No, I don't WANT it to be you, by the way. Your reason was just kind of lame."  
"My reason's no more flimsy than anyone else's. In fact, mine's probably more solid because I can physically show you that our printer's out of ink. Takuya, for example, is famous for phony bravado, so you can't necessarily believe that a careless laugh eliminates him."  
"But he's got-"  
"I know, some major secret that magically excuses him. I'm starting to wonder what it is.  
"Sorry, but I can't tell you. It's embarrassing."  
"You know, if I were in your position, I'd be convinced that he just invented the most ludicrous reason he could think of. Reverse psychology; you wouldn't think he'd go there, but he went there. Like something so outrageous and unreal that it's almost impossible to believe, and that's what makes it believable. Plus he swore you to secrecy, so the only thing that makes it true is his word."  
While before Izumi had been almost absolutely positive that of all people, Takuya was least likely to be anonymous, she was now no longer sure. Takuya WAS a confident liar, and she still thought Takuya being in love with Kouji of all people was extremely unrealistic. "Why are you so convinced it was Takuya?" she asked.  
"I'm not, not necessarily. It's just an example. Whoever sent you this letter duped you into thinking it wasn't them for some reason. If you really want to know who it was, you can't believe anyone. Everyone is still a suspect."  
"Keep in mind: that still includes you."  
"True enough."

Kouichi put the letter back on the table and pushed it towards Izumi. She let it sit there, keeping her hands folded on her lap. Her tea was still untouched, as was her soup, and on the other side of the table, the tea mug was empty, and the bowl contained just a few more spoonfuls of broth. Kouichi needed several seconds to clear his throat before he could finish the soup.  
"You're easy to talk to, Kouichi."  
"Thanks?" His voice was leaving him and he spent a few more seconds trying to clear his throat again. "What's that supposed to mean?"  
"Have any of the others said anything to you? Anything kind of suspicious? Kouji would come right to you, wouldn't he?"  
"I like to think he would. He's told me plenty of personal stuff, more than I even wanted to know about him, but nothing ever involving you."  
"Maybe the other two…?"  
"Not within the past two years or so. I'd gotten the impression that all male members of our group had moved on to seeking mates elsewhere. You really are like a sister to us; it'd just be too weird to date you."  
"But at the same time, I can't think of anyone who would've sent a letter like that except for someone in our group."  
"Then I guess it all comes down to who you believe, or who you want to believe." Izumi was about to ask what he meant by that, but Kouichi prevented the question by having an extremely impressive coughing fit; in the end his face was totally red and his eyes had started to go bloodshot.  
"You know, you should probably get out of here before I get you sick too. It was probably a good idea for you to not eat or drink any of that." He pointed to her untouched tea and soup, and then he asked, "Speaking of which, if you aren't going to eat that, mind if I take it?"  
"Please, go ahead." She pushed the tea and soup towards him, and then pushed her chair out and stood. "I'm just going to go home. It's been a long day, you understand."  
"Of course. I'm really sorry I couldn't give you any closure."  
"It's okay. I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually."

Kouichi also stood and walked her to the door. They said very brief good byes. She told him to get better soon and revealed home remedies certain to cure him and all that jazz, while all Kouichi left her with was: "Good luck."

In the end, after all that work, Izumi ultimately decided that she hadn't ruled out a single boy. One of the four was guilty, and she still had no idea who.

* * *

Izumi was sure she'd be up all night, tossing and turning and thinking and wondering about the letter, Anonymous, and the possible liar in the group. Instead, she slept like a rock that night. Mentally and emotionally exhausted, she had no energy left to brainstorm about the letter.

The next morning, she'd decided to take the advice of all four boys; likely, the culprit wouldn't send her another letter, and she should just stop trying to hard to find him. He obviously didn't want to be found, or else he wouldn't have lied, and he would've told her to her face instead of in a letter. Maybe he didn't even truly love her; the note had just been a sudden impulse he'd immediately regretted, or worse yet, maybe it had just been a dare.  
The point was: the letter wasn't important. She didn't have to be concerned about whichever boy had sent it and who he was.

Izumi opened her locker and sure enough, there was another letter just sitting there, pretty innocuously. She looked around, hoping that maybe she'd spot some conspicuous lovesick boy standing around watching her; she found no one.  
Should she read the letter, or throw it away?  
Curiosity got the better of her, and she gingerly removed the piece of paper from her locker, unfolding it and smoothing it as slowly and carefully as she could. She took a deep breath, preparing for the worst: an epic love letter, or a tragic ode, or just a bundle of pathetic meaningless words about broken hearts and whatnot. Then she finally read it:

_Izumi-_

_Love is a very tricky thing.  
__Our friends are clueless, but you know.  
__Voices tell lies, but hearts don't.  
__Enlighten me: who do you believe?_

_You only have one chance to guess right  
__Or else you'll never know; I won't tell.  
__Underneath your denial, I think your heart knows. _

The letter was unsigned and typed. Other than the creased folds, the paper was immaculate. It could've been written by anyone from anywhere at any time; it didn't even have to be her friends. There was no telling who Anonymous could be.

But Izumi knew. She couldn't explain it, but she suddenly realized that she knew exactly who Anonymous was, and what's more, she wasn't at all surprised.

She had to wait until after school, but when the students were released, she took out her cell phone and called him. The phone rang four times before he answered, and when he said hello, she asserted calmly: "It was you all along, wasn't it?"  
He was silent for a moment, and then he replied, "Took you long enough."  
"Is there any way you can meet me somewhere? We need to talk."  
"Yeah. We definitely need to talk."  
"Just know that I'm not guaranteeing anything," she warned. "I just want to talk, that's all. Honestly this time."  
"I understand. But can you guarantee at least one thing?"  
"What?"  
"That you really don't have any feelings for me at all?"  
She paused, and found she couldn't answer the question. "I'll meet you soon."  
"Okay. See you then."


End file.
